Or perhaps to challenge; to the entity it mattered not. A game indeed was afoot, one which the motes were coming close to at least realizing existed, a game whose rules were older than Time, whose paradigms were unyielding, unchangeable.

Else the Game simply could not exist.

From the very molecules of the matter which surrounded the group, the stone, the sconces which flickered here and there, the coarse and gritty rock which floored the tunnel, the very air itself, there arose a deep vibration. It boomed forth, dwindled to silence, and repeated again and yet again, primal for the sheer repetitive rhythm of its cycle. Louder and louder came the sound with each onslaught, until once more the ceiling was loosened, sending bits and pieces of ringing rock down upon the heads of all, and the apparent solidity of the stone beneath their feet showed its true face by rippling like water.

It was as if the Universe itself was laughing.

It was.

Finally the sounds receded to a level tolerant to human ears, quieted so that each individual heart could again beat independent of the others, with rhythms unique to itself.

"Honor the Universe?" came the Voice as in answering Phalomir it responded to all.

"Tiny motes, you are the Universe! Why then do you break That Which Is, the Natural Order, and in the doing disturb our slumber?"

Huddled in the darkness there, wrapped in Panthar and tuk'ata and the awful stare which emanated from those improbable eyes, I shivered, a cold sweat springing out over my entire body. Even though my hands felt like twin blocks of ice I managed to dig my fingers even deeper into the muscles of Panthar's arm; I think en route I snagged a tiny bit of tuk'ata tendril, judging from the sudden yowl which split the dark.

No matter; the simple fact was that I was terrified, more terrified than I have ever been in my entire life, and I wondered with an even greater desperation why Panthar wasn't.

Doesn't he know? Can't he sense this? Doesn't he realize...?

My fingertips almost met themselves in his flesh.

"Panthar," I croaked in a cold whisper.

"I was right; don't you see? Don't you get it? The Game this thing is talking about, the rules, it's awakening...

"Panthar, I think this thing is... well, it Is. It simply represents everything, and to it everything is a game... or else it just is a game and we're a part of it and we broke the rules and it doesn't like that..."

I jerked to sudden silence, shivering and shaking even as that logical little part of me waved a hand to inform me of just how ridiculous that supposition sounded.

But I didn't care. I knew I was right.

The question was what the hell were we going to do?

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“You are That Which Is. Yet we have broken you, awoken you… But you also said you are Triumvirate made whole, yet you have no concern for the Sith and its Triumvirate. We are the universe, we are part of what makes the natural order of things. Things external to us influence our lives, yet even those external things are part of the whole. The natural order… the game?

“The universe is everything: space, time, existence… continuity. But there are rules, and the rules are everything, aren’t they? Rules say you live, you die, you don’t come back.

“And what do the rules say about time? About crossing the lines of existence and living out your life in another time… I do not belong here, do I? The Sith do not belong here…”

Phalomir focused on the eyes once again.

“But how can That Which Is be fixed?”

[ 12-29-2004 10:52 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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Great booming waves of pure energy erupted from the hearts of every atom in existence, roaring forth in an awful cacophony which sent everyone bowling heads over hiney down whatever corridor they happened to be occupying. But as before, at length that terrifying power lessened, dwindled, grew quieter and gentler until there was nothing left but silence and the glowing eyes hovering over all.

"Time?"

This time the Voice came chillingly, icy as a north wind blasting across a glacier, down from a towering mountain, emanating from the near-absolute zero of the heart of space itself.

"Though perhaps merely to you, in reality there is no Time.

"There is only... That Which Is, which you have broken. Resolution must be met, lest the Game cease."

“Why Dagobah, my love?” he whispered. “Why is it so important that those are the words you uttered, and are now silent? You have spoken so little of this to me, but there must be something in what you have told me. You lost your child at that time, wrapping it a blanket of love and sending both far away into the Elseness. Is that where we are now, my lady?”

She lay silent, her eyes closed. He looked up once again, then closed his own eyes.

“So, Time is not the issue,” Phalomir continued thinking out loud. “Yet there ARE rules, and the rules are the game itself? They are the natural order, and we have broken them. But can It be corrected? Is it the resolution of this turn that which allows the game to continue? How can we fix That Which Is broken?”

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The reply was swift, dagger-sharp, nuance clearly stressed.

"That Which Is Broken cannot be repaired, but Resolution must be at hand. That Which is Broken must break no more.

"The Triumvirate must slumber once again, lest the Game cease."

"I'll put it to sleep!" I growled beneath my breath, striving to keep the ever-present specter of terror at bay.

"I'll knock it into the next dimension, just gimme a chance...."

Luckily, the combination of Panthar's renewed grip and his beastie's twining tendril kept me from making good on that stupid and obviously quite empty threat.

But there was no way in Hell that I was going to stand quietly by, when events appeared to be leading in a direction I didn't like one little bit.

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“Hold on a minute, let me catch up here. I’m an archeologist, not a… something that understands what is going on. Let me get this straight… You mean this thing is the embodiment of EVERYTHING? Like, the entire universe? Existence? Natural order and all that. So, we’re in a big game of life and everything, and we broke the rules… what exactly did we do? Was it bringing back Terrin from the Darker Realms and sticking him back in his body?

“And now it says that it can’t be repaired, but Resolution must be at hand and things can’t break any more.”

“And so… all this Triumvirate stuff? Is that the Sith triumvirate? Or is it something else, like a trio of things, maybe the ‘us’ and ‘we’ it keeps talking about, eh? The Game, the Natural Order, and the… um… Eyes. But if we can’t fix it, then what is the resolution? How do keep it from breaking more? Or stop it from breaking again? Or whatever the heck it means!”

“Is it that about it?”

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...but do we not still have the free will to choose what we do in the Game, despite what circumstances it hands us?"

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"Hell if I know, but yeah, that's kinda what I'm thinking.

"But why don't you ask it? I mean, I'm just guessing here...."

I looked up at the great glowing eyes, which merely scrutinized me coldly for a bit before blinking, as if it was awaiting that very thing I had just spoken of.

Not just a question, but A question.

The right question?

Who in Hell's Seven Circles knew; I could only go by the hunch that was screaming loudly in my psyche, quite easily pushing aside logic and its damnable little red warning flag.

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"Free will?" came the booming Voice, curiosity clearly evident in it.

"Free will is that which sentient beings possess, that which drives them to not merely be pawns in a game, be that game the Game of Life or something smaller. The drive to...

...play the Game and not be played by it."

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She was not taking very well to the idea of being a mere meaningless speck in the Universe. She could deal with look at things from other angles. She could deal with good and evil relying on one's own point of view. But this...

"I will not be a simple gamepiece in a game played by uncaring Fates!" she growled.

[ 12-30-2004 12:24 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"You are what you are."

The words seemed to coalesce from the very rock itself, which in turn inexplicably began to sing.

“Did we break the game by bringing Terrin back from the dead?” asked Phalomir. “Are you keepers of the Darker Realms or some such thing?”

He looked down at Jharmeen once again. “Do we break the game by using the Claw of Sla’an?”

He looked back to Eyes.

“Why were you asleep?”

[ 12-30-2004 12:42 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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"We are Keepers of nothing!"

The bellow was almost indignant.

"We Are That We Are, and this is Our Place of Places. We are Triumvirate made whole, and That which is Broken must break no more."

It paused there for a moment, seemingly waiting for a reply when Phalomir's final words seemed to finally sink into whatever it used for a brain.

"Tell me of this Claw of S'laan," it thundered, then did indeed fall silent.

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"The Natural Order."

The Eyes blinked once more, then darkened as though suddenly infused with the combination of every hurricane, every dark nebula, and every unfathomable abyss known to the universe.

She gasped, flailing wildly with her hands, trying to keep something at bay as deep within her psyche the Beast raised its fearsome head and yowled out in terror and anguish.

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“Stop this!” Phalomir shouted to the Eyes. He roared his anger and held her as closely as he could without hurting her. “Very well! The Claw is a device which allows an All user to negate the restrictions of using it as a weapon! Now stop this!”

The Eye did not respond, but seemed to ponder Phalomir’s words. Phalomir continued to frantically speak, trying at the same time to keep Jharmeen from hurting herself in her wild throws.

“The natural order has been broken, but how? If we did it, how was it done? If it is not me, not the Sith, then is it Terrin? Answer me!”

Already tired, both physically and mentally, and reaching a point of frustration, he looked directly at the hovering Eyes, his own eyes flashing red.

“Why do you torment us?” he called out. “WHAT ARE YOU?”

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She let out a whimper, and settled into something resembling sleep, quiet and apparently at peace.

The Eyes blinked, then one drifted up from its mate at a strange angle, as if a gigantic and invisible head had cocked in curiosity.

"The All?"

The words whickered quietly, shocking for the gentle tone in which they crept into everyone's ears.

"The Life's Blood...."

Silence fell then, as upon the planet's surface great roiling clouds once more gathered, black and purple and green, flashing noisome energies, all in utter and eerie silence as time ground to a halt.

For the planet... and the Universe in general.

Everywhere, that is, with the sole exception of a tiny and until that moment quite insignificant bubble within it, inhabited by ten infinitesimal beings.

The eyes grew darker.

"This cannot be allowed, lest further breakage occurs."

A streak of pure, molten silver shot from the Eyes, straight to the quiet form of Jharmeen. It danced along her person like some kind of weird St. Elmo's fire, nosing about until it came to a sudden halt directly atop the Claw which topped her prosthetic finger.

With very little fuss, it simply disappeared, leaving the artificial digit pale and whole in its wake.

The Eyes focused on Phalomir again.

"What We are..."

A miniscule pause followed, one in which lightyears seemed to pass beyond the perimeter of their protected little bubble.

"We are Triumvirate Made Whole. We--

"I am All/Life, Non-Life, and That in which they Exist."

Another pause.

"The Natural order has been broken, and must break no further. This Claw--"

The Eyes darkened.

"Would have allowed that. It cannot be.

"Others of its kind cannot be."

Another pause, but one in which some kind of struggle clearly shone forth from the periwinkle eyes. They blinked, and another sigh of wind whickered past everyone's ears.

"That Which Is must continue along its proper course; which is a simple thing: that which is, is, and that which is no more, cannot be any longer."

The Eyes turned off to one side then, as if paying close attention to a particular person in the little group. The struggle within it's gaze grew more evident, as it sought to find the proper words to speak.

"All must end in Natural Order. That which now is, is, but Natural Order must remain natural again.

"It can be broken no more."

Now the struggle in the eyes turned to a black scowl, and it shot that look straight at the quiet Jharmeen.

"There are some who yet break the Natural Order, and who would continue; this too cannot be."

Another molten spear stabbed forth, shot into Jharmeen's closed eyes, and spread within her psyche. She trembled beneath that sudden attack, just once, then sighed and quieted, almost snuggling down as if for a restful slumber.

Within her being, the Beast was smitten a mortal blow.

"That Which Is broken must break no more."

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The terror, the panic, it was gone. He could no longer sense Aelvedaar’s malice. A certain peace seemed to pervade her soul now, but there was something more. Phalomir could feel tremendous energies locked inside of her, but his magick could not unlock their secrets, nor did he press.

He slowly raised his gaze to the Eyes. He held it there, not speaking, but contemplating what had just happened.

“All must follow the Natural Order,” he said finally. “Even the All, the Life’s Blood. I feel so insignificant under the weight of what you show me. But life, matter, and that in which they exist, everything is connected; everything is… Everything. And I, we, are part of that. Thus we, by the actions we take, are part of what moves the game along. We are small parts, yes, but as individuals which make up a greater whole we are not insignificant – Not when one being, one action, can alter the natural course.

“We have great responsibility. But there are so many mysteries, how will we know what violates the natural order? Sith magick, the Force, all that we sense, these are tangible – all found within the Life’s Blood, no doubt, encompassed by the All. But what is our end in the Natural Order? Is the Darker Realms our fate? Is that Realm within the order?”

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